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About Hop & Harp

I’ve been homebrewing since college, when my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, taught me how to brew. She had brewed with her father growing up, so she knew enough to get me started. The beer we made back then probably wasn’t very good. I definitely didn’t understand sanitization the way I should have. But I was hooked anyway.

After college, I brewed extract kits for a while before eventually buying a couple of large kettles and building a mash tun out of a cooler. I brewed on that setup for years. It worked, and I learned a lot on it. Eventually, though, I wanted to move my brewing indoors. Northwestern Pennsylvania is cold for what feels like six or seven months out of the year, and standing outside over a kettle loses its charm pretty quickly. I ended up buying a Brewzilla and haven’t looked back.

I’ve brewed a little bit of everything over the years, but as I get older, I find myself coming back to simpler, old-world styles. English ales, German lagers, bitters, milds, porters, pilsners, helles, märzens, and beers that feel like they belong in a pub or biergarten. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good IPA. Southern Tier 2X IPA is still one of my favorites. But most of what I want to brew now is traditional, balanced, and repeatable.

The Hop & Harp Journal is my place to document that process.

I’m still learning as I go. This site is not meant to be the final word on brewing. It’s a record of my brew days, recipes, mistakes, adjustments, tasting notes, and lessons learned along the way. My goal is to dial in my system, simplify my ingredients, build dependable house recipes, and keep getting better one batch at a time.

If you’re interested in traditional beer styles, practical home brewing, simple recipes, and the process of learning by doing, bookmark the site and check back in. There will be plenty more to come

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